Flight MH370: Images of ocean debris

Search teams hunting for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have spotted hundreds of objects floating in the southern Indian Ocean.

A number of satellites and plane crews have detected possible debris off the coast of Australia in the last two weeks. Teams are now scouring a new area more than 1,000km (600 miles) further north than the previous search zone.

So far, none of these sightings has been related to the missing plane.

Here is what we know about the objects seen.

Location of debris sightings

1. Australian satellite spots objects on 16 March

Object 24m in length

Australian officials released images last week showing two whitish objects on or just under the surface of the ocean. They were spotted by satellite on 16 March, but not released until days later because it had taken time to analyse them, Australian Air Commodore John McGarry said.

Australia's Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation, which carried out the analysis, said the larger of the objects could measure up to 24m (79ft) long.

"The indication to me is of objects that are a reasonable size and probably awash with water, moving up and down over the surface,'' said John Young, general manager of the emergency response division of Amsa.

Mr Young added that the debris was spotted along a busy shipping route and could be containers that had fallen off cargo vessels. However, the larger object appeared to be longer than a container, he added.

Object 5m in length

On the same day, a second object was also spotted - estimated to be about 5m (16ft) long.

2. Chinese satellite spots objects on 18 March

Object measuring 22m by 13m

Latest image taken by China's Gaofen-1 satellite

On Saturday 22 March, China released a satellite image showing an object near to the area already being searched.

The grainy image was released by China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

The Xinhua state news agency said the image was taken at about 04:00 GMT on 18 March and showed objects about 120km "south by west" from the site of possible debris shown in the satellite images from 16 March.

The image was taken by the Gaofen-1 high-resolution optical Earth observation satellite of China's National Space Administration.

Radar echoes had picked up several objects about 2,300km (1,430 miles) from Perth on 21 March, a statement added.

The data was passed on to Australian authorities in the form of "satellite-generated radar echoes" rather than images. Radar works by sending out radio waves or microwaves and listening for echoes that bounce back.

Malaysian officials later confirmed they had received a further set of images from French satellites, this time captured by cameras. These images were taken on 23 March and have been relayed to the Australian authorities coordinating the search.

"At present we are unable to confirm whether the floating objects are related to the missing passenger jet."

The crew of the Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft had given the co-ordinates of the objects to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) as well as China's ice-breaker Xue Long (Snow Dragon), which is heading to the area, Xinhua news agency said.

9. Five planes spot objects on 28 March

A Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion first spotted "a number of objects white or light in colour and a fishing buoy", Australian authorities said. An Australian plane then went to relocate the items and spotted "two blue/grey rectangular objects". Three other planes reported similar sightings.

However, the sightings needed confirmation by ship, which is not expected until later.

Acting Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that the fact that the search area had moved did not discount the earlier satellite images of possible debris further south.

"Because of ocean drift, this new search area could still be consistent with the potential objects identified by various satellite images over the past week," Mr Hishammuddin said.